US museums return trove of looted treasures to Nigeria
The State of Nigeria has recovered most of their art wealth stolen by former military rulers of the country.
The looted collection of about 200 pieces of art worth $700 million was restored to the collections of the Nigerian National Museum in Abuja.
The museum’s director of collections, George Opoku, said their collections were returned to the museum in 2014 after a protracted legal battle with the former military rulers.
“Following a long and complicated legal battle, during which about one-half of the looted art was returned to the collections and half was kept as the property of the Nigerian National Museum and other national institutions and institutions,” Opoku told journalists in Abuja.
The return of the art is set to give a boost to the struggling Nigerian economy.
According to Opoku, the return of the looted art is good for the country.
“The return is good for Nigeria, and we are very happy to have it back here in Abuja. It’s good news for Nigeria. It will also give confidence to the whole nation that in terms of the art, we are going back to the collections,” he said.
“The story is a very long and complex one, but I would say we have been successful in retrieving about one-half of it, so that is good news, but we also need to see that this is not replicated because that is very important in terms of the country’s development. The country is just getting started,” he said.
Opoku said the former military rulers would not be able to use the looted art as they did not have the money to buy the art.
“We believe that it would not be used. We believe that it will be used only for the country. They (former military rulers) did not have the money to pay for the art, and therefore they did not have the money to buy the art, so they did not get the things they could not buy,” Opoku
